To track vending machine inventory accurately, use telemetry: a device on the machine’s MDB bus reads every sale and decrements the stock count for that exact coil in real time, sending the data over 4G LTE to your management platform. You then see live per-machine, per-selection stock across the whole fleet without anyone visiting. Manual tracking — recording what you load and reconciling at the next visit — is the fallback when a machine has no telemetry fitted, but it leaves you blind between visits.
Manual tracking
The traditional approach is to note what you put into each column when you fill a machine, then count what is left on your next visit. The difference, checked against cash collected, tells you what sold.
It works, and for a single machine it may be enough. But it scales badly. Counts are taken by hand, so errors creep in. You only learn about a sold-out selection when you arrive — often days after it emptied. And you cannot plan a route around demand you have no data for. Manual tracking is best treated as a stopgap, not a system.
Telemetry-based tracking
Telemetry removes the guesswork. A device wired to the machine’s MDB (Multi-Drop Bus) listens to the same vend events the machine itself processes. Every sale is captured at the moment it happens and attributed to a specific coil or selection.
Because the count decrements per coil, the platform always reflects current stock. The data travels over 4G LTE, so head office sees live levels for every machine on the network — including which selections are low, which are empty, and which have not moved in a week. This is the foundation of any modern vending management system, and it is what vending machine telemetry is built to deliver.
| Manual tracking | Telemetry tracking | |
|---|---|---|
| Stock visibility | Only at visit | Live, per coil |
| Data accuracy | Hand-counted | Read off MDB bus |
| Sold-out alerts | On arrival | Immediate |
| Effort per machine | High | Negligible |
Using the data
Live inventory data is only useful if it changes how you operate. Three practices return the most value:
- Pre-kitting and pick lists. Before a route, the platform generates an exact list of what each machine needs. Drivers load vans by machine, so refills are faster and fewer products travel back unused.
- Demand-based refills. Instead of visiting every machine on a fixed cycle, you service the ones that actually need it. High-traffic locations get attention sooner; quiet ones are not over-serviced.
- Shelf-life and expiry control. Per-coil sales rates reveal slow movers, letting you rotate or pull stock before it reaches its use-by date. This matters most for chilled and food lines.
A short step list
- Fit a telemetry device to each machine’s MDB bus.
- Map every coil to its product in the management platform.
- Set a starting stock level per coil when you load.
- Let each vend decrement the count automatically over 4G LTE.
- Review live levels to build pick lists and plan routes.
- Reconcile against cash and refills on each visit to confirm accuracy.
Accurate inventory tracking underpins everything else — route planning, cash control, and product mix. For a fuller view of the workflow, see our guide to vending machine inventory management and our overview of how to manage vending inventory.
Ready to see live stock counts across your fleet? Request a demo or explore vending machine inventory management with Vending on Track.